Christmas Shoeboxes

In November we participated on Operation Whatever It's Called* where Samaritan's Purse collects shoe boxes for children in other countries. I let Amelia pick out a box from the wrapped ones at church. I asked her if she wanted to pack it for a boy or a girl and she said girl. We went shopping together and Amelia picked out everything for her including a hairbrush (she was very particular), socks, fake jewelry, hair bows, etc.

The Hello Kitty socks we found were so cute I bought some for Amelia. A couple of days later I got them out for Amelia to wear and she was so upset telling me the socks were for "The Girl! No Mommy, they're for the little girl!" I had to go get the box and pull out the other socks and tell her that both she and the little girl were going to have the same socks. She calmed down and agreed to wear them. I thought it was cute how she was so protective of the little girl's things.

When we went shopping I explained to Amelia that we were picking out things for a little girl that didn't have things like socks and hair bows. She seemed to understand and appreciate the opportunity to help someone.

On Saturday I took Amelia Christmas shopping and was trying to involve her. I told her we were going to look for something for Hannah, maybe a sweater or some pajamas. They had a rack of really pretty, really soft sweaters so I asked Amelia which one we should get for Hannah. Her response, in a somewhat incredulous voice, was, "Does Hannah not have any sweaters?" When we looked at something else and I asked her opinion on what to get her response was, "Because Aunt Jeannine doesn't have any shirts?"

The shoe box thing has backfired a bit. Amelia is very confused about buying Christmas gifts. I tried to explain that we get gifts for people we love but she hasn't quite responded to that as much as she did the concept of buying for those in need. And to be honest, in our current society of over-indulgence, clutter, etc., it doesn't make a lot of sense to me either when I think about it.

*I think it's called Operation Christmas Child but I'm too tired to look it up and I drew a complete blank when I started writing this post.